Weather: About half-inch of rain falls locally, but forecasters say rest of week will be sunny

A sudden, gusty rainstorm over Santa Clarita Valley was part of the reason a big-rig milk truck flipped on Interstate 5 near the Newhall Pass on Monday and contributed to more than a dozen traffic crashes Sunday night.

Rain, heavy at times, is being blamed in part for shutting down the truck lanes of the interstate for about three hours early Monday. The lanes reopened just as morning rush-hour traffic began building up.

Shortly after 2:20 a.m. Monday, a big rig hauling thousands of milk cartons was northbound when it flipped at the entrance to the truck lanes south of Interstate 405 in Sylmar.

“But no milk was spilled,” he added, explaining that thousands of milk cartons had to be transferred onto pallets and removed from the crash scene.

Truck lanes re-opened at 6 a.m. No one was hurt in the incident.

CHP officers responded to more than half a dozen minor accidents on the highways Sunday night as heavy rains pelted the Santa Clarita Valley.

Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in Santa Clarita Valley also responded to an equal number of crashes off the highway.

No one was injured in any of those incidents, according to a spokesman with local Sheriff’s Station.

More than half an inch of rain fell on the Santa Clarita Valley in a six-hour period, said local weather monitor Gene Mock.“It started at about 7 or 8 p.m., but most it fell by midnight,” he said.

Mock said at least 0.55 inches of rain fell in the six-hour period.

While this week got off to a wet and windy start, the rest of the week is expected to be sunny with temperatures hovering between 69 degrees and 71 degrees, according to weather specialists at the National Weather Service in Oxnard.